


Journey Through The Dreamscape

by Naz



Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-16 19:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2282358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naz/pseuds/Naz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While trying to wake him from a nightmare, Sock enters Jonathan's dream. Both unsure of how to get out or "wake up," the two journey through the dream world to try and get back home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Ever since he discovered he could enter Jonathan's house whenever he pleased, Sock would spend his nights drifting around his human charge's room, sometimes messing with Jon's belongings, sometimes watching the human teen mumble in his sleep, and sometimes getting some sleep himself.

He had never gotten the chance to ask if demons even really needed to sleep but decided it couldn't hurt to rest up each night when Jonathan was too tired to have much entertainment value. Not exactly exciting, but Sock preferred it to spending his down time in the heat and chaos of hell. On this particular night, Sock was busying himself ruining the homework that Jonathan had left of his desk with doodles to animal skeletons.

He was just putting the finishing touches of rotting flesh on a platypus skeleton when Jonathan moved. Sock looked up towards the bed, expecting to have a pillow thrown through him like always happened when Jonathan caught him in his room. Instead, there was only a whimper and a groan as Jonathan turned over onto his side.

Sock drifted closer, noting Jonathan's knitted brow and deep frown. A bad dream? A full blown night mare? Sock felt conflicted. Nightmares were probably a really good thing when he considered his job was to get the poor guy to off himself. At the same time, however, seeing his friend in such distress made Sock's heart feel like it was going to sink down and fall right out of his self inflicted stab wound.

Checking behind himself to make double sure Mephistopheles was not around to see what he was about to do, Sock reached out and attempted to gently shake Jonathan awake. Jonathan twitched and whimpered again as Sock's hand went right through him. From this close, Sock could see the sheen of sweat coating the sleeping teen and felt a sense of urgency. He knew he could touch him sometimes, usually by accident or when he wasn't thinking about it, he just had to keep trying! Again and again, Sock's hand went right through the blond teen's body. Making matters worse, Jonathan seemed to be becoming more distressed by the second, thrashing about violently and making pained groans.

Seized by panic and worry for his best and only friend, Sock desperately grabbed for Jonathan's face. For a split second skin met incorporeal skin and then everything went black for Sock.


	2. Water

Sock struggled in vain as he was suddenly plunged into warm liquid, pitch black and thick. As hard as he tried to swim, Sock only sank, the liquid feeling cooler as he went down. Cool turned into cold as Sock thrashed, his body screaming for air.

Just as the water became unbearably icy, Sock was floating upwards. The liquid became regular water, thinner but still freezing, and Sock swam upwards for dear life.

Finally breaching the surface, Sock gulped down lungfuls of air in between coughing fits as strong waves threatened to pull him under again. Thunder and lightning crackled overhead, the dangerously charged clouds seemingly only a couple of meters from the inky water. The violently churning waves dipped Sock's head underneath the surface over and over. Sock forgot everything but sheer panic. He didn't want to die. Not again. Not when it wasn't even his own choice. The demon looked around frantically for something, anything, to hold onto. A short distance away, another figure bobbed among the cold waves. _Jonathan._ Sock's own terror was instantly forgotten at the sight of his friend.

“Jonathan!” Sock's voice came out as a quiet croak. “Jonathan!” He tried again, still unheard over the howling wind. He desperately tried to doggy paddle over to the other struggling figure only to immediately be buffeted backwards by the waves. “JONATHAN!” This time Sock's voice seemed to carry and a drenched blonde head turned towards him, eyes wide with fear and confusion. The stronger of the two, Jonathan managed to paddle to Sock with difficulty. Both boys reached for each other and held on tight as though the other would keep them afloat.

“Jonathan you have to wake up!” Sock managed to gasp out, shutting his eyes tightly against the stinging salt water. “It's a dream! You need to wake up! Please!” Warm tears mixed with the cold water on Sock's face. Knowing that it wasn't real didn't stop the fear that gripped him.

The world flipped upside down before Jonathan could reply, dumping both boys, still clinging tightly to one another, onto sun warmed sand as white as snow. The storm clouds were replaced by an endless blue sky and a pleasantly warm sun. An ocean of gentle waves, as impossibly blue as the sky itself, lapped at the sand nearby.  

Sock hesitantly let go of Jonathan and rubbed his still stinging eyes before sitting up and taking in his surroundings, occasionally coughing to clear his still aching lungs. 

“What...what did you do now?” Jonathan, drenched and sprawled on the sand accused Sock weakly, annoyance tinged with fear in his voice still coming through despite his current frailty. 

“Jonathan!” Sock cried out again as kneeled next to his friend. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Why were you dreaming about a stormy ocean?”

“Dreaming?” The blond teen barely managed to rasp out. He shut his eyes and lay his head back, exhausted from struggling in the waves not moments before. He couldn't tell if his inability to breathe came from panic or from inhaled seawater. Completely worn-out, he didn't move except to grip a handful of sand tightly as Sock frantically explained how he had tried to wake the sleeping teen only to pass through him into the dream itself. Overhead, a palm tree that had not been there before swayed in the gentle tropical breeze as Jonathan began to calm down. 

“How do you know we're in my dream?” Jonathan finally responded after a few moments of thoughtful silence. It seemed like a stupid question to Jonathan immediately after he asked. A demon touches a sleeping person, they go into their dream. It was as perfectly logical as it was ridiculous. 

Sock scrunched up his face, trying his hardest to think of an explanation. “I don't dream anymore so we're not in mine...” he began.

“Forget it.” Jonathan propped himself up on his elbows and watched Sock fiddle nervously with his soaking wet scarf. His mild annoyance at having his dream invaded quickly vanished. There was probably worse things that Sock could do. No hat in sight, the demon's normally ridiculous hair was plastered to his cheeks. Some seashells popped into existence nearby and even more palm trees now dotted the shore as Jonathan stifled a laugh at the drenched demon's appearance. “Uh...So how _do_ I wake up?” Jonathan asked. The terror he felt from drowning in the stormy sea was fading as quickly as the heat of the sun dried his clothes and warmed his body.

Sock looked bewildered at first before scrunching his face up again to think, determined to actually be helpful. “Maybe you...ummm...just open your eyes? and the- oh, they are open...okay ummm...”

Jonathan pulled himself into a full sitting position as he watched an exasperated Sock struggle to think of a solution. A smile tugged at the blond teen's lips as Sock flailed around describing how they could build an elaborate contraption using palm tree wood and pointed shells. The Smile vanished, however, when Sock revealed that the elaborate contraption's purpose was to kill Jonathan. 

“Then you'll wake up, see how dying isn't so bad, and kill yourself for real!” Sock finished cheerfully, the hypocrisy of someone who had just been terrified for his own life saying death was no big deal was lost on him.

“Forget it.” Jonathan repeated as he stood up. If this was a dream then it was a nice one now (If he ignored Sock's presence). What could possibly go wrong on a tropical island paradise? 

Sock moved to stand up as well and fell backwards. He tried again, and fell backwards again. Making sure to put on a show of rolling his eyes and sighing, Jonathan held out his hand to help Sock to his feet.

Standing on the sand in his still damp socks, shoes stolen by the raging sea, Sock looked only slightly less distressed than when the pair had initially landed on the beach. “I can't float.” He said, panic evident in his voice.“I...I couldn't breathe. I _needed_ to breathe.” Sock had taken his floating and general ghostly state for granted since he had died but now that it was gone, his living body felt heavy and powerless and _scary_. It felt like he had lost the most important thing in the world.

Letting himself fall backwards again onto the sand, Sock looked up at Jonathan with the most helpless and lost look the blond teen had ever seen. Not knowing what else to do, Jonathan sat down next to Sock and placed a comforting hand on the now quivering demon's shoulder. He couldn't stay mad for long when Sock suggested he kill himself. It was just his job after all. He made for it by being pretty alright to hang around with the rest of the time.  

“It's just a dream?” Jonathan supplied, unsure if he was at all helpful. The whole 'having a close friend' thing was new to him and he wasn't sure how to go about comforting someone at all. “Everything will be back to normal when I wake up and you'll be able to break the laws of physics all you want again. You can go back to being undead or immortal or whatever you are.”

“How do you know?” Sock sniffled, still looking at Jonathan with gigantic green eyes still filled with fear.

 Jonathan shrugged. “It's my dream. I just sort of know. That's how dreams are I guess. ”

Sock seemed calmer, leaning into Jonathan's touch. Jonathan nodded wordlessly, listening to his friend talk and allowing him to snuggle closer. It was strange but not entirely unpleasant to be able to touch the demon as though he were a normal human. Sock hugged his knees. “I think I like being dead better than feeling alive again.” he admitted. “Is that crazy?”

Getting to his feet again, Jonathan looked out over the now calm ocean. “Yeah, but almost everything you say is crazy. Come on man, you dove in here to help me right? Get it together.” He offered his hand to Sock again. “Let's look around for a bit and maybe you'll feel better and I'll wake up.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Advice on characterization and dialogue is encouraged!


	3. The Beach of Academic Failure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A crab dies.

The blank tropical island materialized more and more details as Jonathan and Sock walked along the beach. Shells and sea glass now littered the white sand. Sock's balance improved as he became physically accustomed to having a flesh and blood body again and he was soon picking up every little thing and asking Jonathan why he was dreaming about them. Jonathan walked along at a slower pace, occasionally making comments about Sock's now dry hair, which seemed in even more disarray than the last time he had seen him hatless.

 

“Hey! There's a message in this bottle!” Sock ran ahead of Jonathan and tripped in his own two feet in his excitement and landed face first in the sand. Not deterred from his excitement at the possibility of a treasure map, Sock, still lying on his belly, reached for the bottle and tipped it upside down. “It's a-” Sock's face fell when he saw it was not a note from a pirate. “It's a math test you failed.” Jonathan bent down snatched the paper from Sock with a scowl and looked it over before crumpling it up and throwing it as far as he could into the sea. The demon could not mask his delight.

 

“Is that a real test that you failed?” Sock scanned the shore gleefully for more treasures. Jonathan looked away and responded with an annoyed grunt as more bottles with paper inside came into existence.

 

Before Jonathan could grab him, Sock was off like a shot upending bottles. “This one's from 5th grade English! Science! Another math one! A drawing from kindergarten!” A strong hand wrapped around Sock's small wrist as Jonathan caught up and plucked the papers from the demon's grasp.

 

“Don't touch my stuff.” Jonathan snapped. A crab scuttled between the two and waved its pinchers. Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance. Sock momentarily tried to phase out of the blond's grip before remembering it was futile. The fear from earlier when he realized he couldn't float returned. Jonathan loosened his grip slightly, but didn't let go. The crab burrowed itself in the sand and vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

 

“Sorry.” Sock said sheepishly.

 

“Whatever.” Jonathan looked away from Sock to hide his expression. “Just...stay close from now on. There's probably a ton of personal shit in dreams that I _really_ don't need you to see. _Please_.” Jonathan turned back to Sock to punctuate his words with a glare.

 

“Sorry.” Sock said again, feeling torn. He didn't want Jonathan to be angry but at the same time he couldn't just let this opportunity to get to know the apathetic teen better pass by. He would just have to be more subtle. Not his strong suit, but Sock figured he could manage.

 

Eyeing the demon with distrust, Jonathan slowly let go of Socks wrist. He let his fingers linger on the demon's skin, feeling secretly fascinated he could consistently touch it without phasing through, before finally letting go completely and turning away again. The weather suddenly seemed much hotter. Sock looked up at him curiously.

 

“Look, let's justaaAAAAAOHMYGOD THAT'S A GIANT FUCKING SPIDER ON THAT TREE!” Jonathan fell and scrambled backwards. The sky quickly darkened as fear overtook the dreaming teen. It was a nightmare again! He had to get out of here he had to get Sock out of here it wasn't safe there were monsters everywh-

 

“It's not a spider, it's a coconut crab!” Sock interrupted Jonathan's horrified thoughts and bounced over to the creature, not afraid in the slightest. “We learned about them in biology when Mrs. Cabot was talking about island ecosystems, remember?”

 

“You pay attention in my classes?” Jonathan asked in disbelief as he brushed sand off of himself, pretending he had never been scared. The sky meekly faded back to brilliant blue. “How? You are literally constantly talking.” Jonathan thought he could probably recount what Sock had said and done in specific classes better than he could remember what his teachers had said.

 

“I like the dissection stuff from that class! I can't be that distracting if the stuff from class is in your dreams!” Sock stuck out his tongue at Jonathan who returned it with a scowl that went ignored. “She said crabs have blue blood! Let's stab it and find out!”

 

Jonathan felt a mix of disgust and intrigue, a fairly usual blend of emotions when Sock was around. He knew the dream crab would probably bleed whatever colour of blood he thought it should, but he still kind of wanted to see for himself. He hoped with all hope that was just normal curiosity and not Sock's weird hobbies rubbing off on him.

 

Sock looked around excitedly for something he could use to open up the coconut crab with so that he could explore its innards.

 

“Are these things edible?” Jonathan asked as he handed Sock a sharp and heavy looking rock. It was probably against his better judgement to provide anything that could be used as a weapon to the demon, but for some reason Jonathan felt like he could trust Sock more than anyone else he knew. He _had_ wanted to wake him from a nightmare so badly that he had accidentally entered the dream. Jonathan couldn't think of anyone else who would do that for him. Again, the temperature rose.

 

“I think it's edible if you want it to be? It's your dream crab!” Sock was happily hammering away at the struggling crustacean's shell. With a giggle, he ripped a giant leg off the dying creature and splattered ink blue blood all over himself. Jonathan backed up a little, feeling his stomach clench in both fear and fondness. The sky darkened slightly and the air felt even hotter.

 

“Woah. Come check this out! You're not gonna like it!” Sock turned to face Jonathan with a devious grin, lower face and hands almost completely blue. Jonathan inched closer and leaned over Sock's shoulder. There, where the crab's meat and guts should have been, were more copies of Jonathan's failed school assignments. Thunder crackled as Jonathan yanked Sock to his feet and dragged him from his prey.

 

“Wash that shit off. We are leaving this god damn beach right now.” He ordered a snickering Sock.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, any advice or feedback is greatly appreciated.


End file.
